My Q Review for those of You Thinking About Switching (Long)
I put my PPC-6700 on hold to try a Motorla Q as soon as Sprint dropped the price to 99 bucks. I figured I'd use the 15-day trial period to decide which I liked better.
I've had a PocketPC since the HP Journada in 1999, followed by an iPaq 3600 after the big class-action lawsuit against HP, then the 6700 since December of '05. Your mileage may vary, but I hope this helps those of you trying to decide between the WM5 Smartphone vs WM5 Pocket PC devices. Here's my opinion of the Q, based on my experience so far.
1) WiFi: If you absolutely must have WiFi, there's no contest, quit reading now. Q doesn't have it and you can't add it. In one year with the
6700 I never needed WiFi. EVDO is absolutely everywhere I have gone for the last year, including some pretty remote spots, and I
never needed to turn on the 6700's WiFi radio except to play around. If you are a dedicated wardriver, sniffer, or pocket Skype user, the 6700 kicks ass.
The rest of this review won't help you. If you want to continue, check your carrier's coverage maps to make sure EVDO is everywhere you want to be.
2) Human Factors: The usability of the Q crushes the 6700. The keyboard and D-pad are the perfect size, and in the perfect spot. I never thought the smaller keys would work with my fat hands, but the proof is in the pudding. They're positioned for comfortable thumb-typing, and the spacing and rounded keytops make fat-fingering very unlikely. I never got used to the 6700's keyboard. It's too easy to mash keys, and you can't hold it comfortably even though it's bigger. The balance of the screen sticking out over the keyboard on the 6700 just never worked ergonomically for me, either. Forget the D-pad on the 6700. You can't use it one-handed; it's too low on a device that's too thick and too heavy. If you try, the rest of the phone teeters completely unbalanced out over your hand. You'll drop it eventually. And you can't really reach for it when you're typing on the open keyboard. For that matter, you eventually reach a point with the 6700 where there's something you absolutely can't do one-handed. You have to whip out the stylus, if it hasn't fallen out and gotten lost already. I travel a lot. You flat-out can't use the 6700 while towing luggage. Eventually you have to stop and use two hands, or pull the stylus out with your mouth. Try it while running to catch a plane if you don't believe me.
The Q is designed from the ground up for one-handed operation. There's nothing you absolutely need both thumbs for, even though it's easier to do some things two-handed. The side wheel and cancel button become intuitive and indispensable after a few minutes of use. My only real UI complaint is that the smartphone software has a tendency to switch between graphical and text-based GUIs inconsistently. It's a lot like the blackberry in this regard. A graphical interface screen will give way to a scrolling text listing and vice versa as you navigate through various settings and programs. Sometimes you get pop-up menus, sometimes you get separate text only screens. My big complaint about the Blackberry was that the GUI was just the pretty front page: the rest of the device looks & acts like a pager. The Smartphone software isn't as bad but it is inconsistent. The PocketPC interface is consistently windows-like.
3) Software: The Q's Smartphone software has some things built-in that either don't exist on the 6700 or require hacks (the converse is also true of PocketPC software). The voice command built into the Q is really nice, and you can command anything, not just the phone. The Q supports more bluetooth profiles, including stereo headsets, that require hacks or vendor updates on the 6700. My updates & hacks worked on the 6700 but not as smoothly as on the Q. All of my 3rd party software on the 6700 worked on the Q, including Orb, TCPMP, Windows Live Search and some other utilities. There are some things the Q doesn't have built-in for notes and file editing that you can get via 3rd parties to bring it to parity with a full PocketPC. All in all I'd have to say the software between the two is comparable; there's nothing I was doing on the 6700 that I can't do on the Q (see WiFi disclaimer above).
4) Screen (web surfing, file viewing): The Q's screen is smaller but much brighter and sharper. Fonts look smoother. The web browser actually works better. Even on the small screen, I have yet to find a website in my favorites that can't render in either one-column, default, or desktop view. I don't need to resort to the WAP version of any of my favs. I had trouble correctly rendering some of them on my 6700, even though the browser is supposed to be the same between the two. Scrolling with either the d-pad or scroll wheel is no contest: the Q flattens the 6700 here. Movies in TCPMP
are smaller but appear brighter with slightly more saturated colors. I like the Q's builtin file viewer. It does a good job rendering, scrolling, and zooming, and it works great with PDF files. The 6700 would win for actual built-in editing capability if not for the clunky keyboard, though.
5) Sync: The Q doesn't sync everything the 6700 does. Outlook Notes in particular requires a 3rd party add-on. I can transfer anything I want using
the file explorer in activesync, but the "my documents" folder no longer stays in sync the way it does on a full PPC. The 6700 wins this comparison. Activesync allows plug-ins so you can add 3rd party tools to bring it back up to parity, or you can just copy documents manually. I don't get why motorola doesn't add this parity out of the box; the smartphone software is obviously designed for dumber devices that wouldn't need to sync files but the Q's in between: it's smarter than a smartphone but really only separated from the PPC by the lack of touchscreen. End users shouldn't need to bring this to parity by themselves.
6) Size: Fughetaboutit.
7) Phone: Motorola knows how to build a phone. This one sounds great at the earpiece and people can here what I'm saying into the mouthpiece.
The 6700's phone is just plain crap. If I'm outside or in anything other than a silent office, I can't hear the earpiece. Nobody anywhere can hear me. For a phone I just gave up on holding the brick to my head and used a wired or bluetooth headset. Also, for some reason the 6700 always made my arm sore when I held it up to use as a phone, especially my elbow. No such problems with the Q.
8) Battery: I dunno. I haven't timed it objectively. The 6700 couldn't go a full 8-hour business day without docking at my desk for a refill. It would
start giving me low battery warnings around lunchtime. I have used the Q exactly the same way for the same amount of voice & data useage, and it seems to go the full day without a recharge, but it's warning me about low battery when I got home.
Be careful charging the Q. It has a standard USB connector but it seems picky about chargers and I can't find definitive documentation about what it requires. The supplied charger is a 5-V 1-A unit, but my old blackberry USB charger (5-V 800-ma) won't charge it, nor will my 5-V 1-A car charger. I've read posts here about non-moto chargers shorting out the fuse in the Q, but I can't tell exactly what spec charger the Q requires, so I just bought an extra Motorola-brand wall charger and a moto car charger. Curiously, my powered USB hub will charge it. What I've read is scaring me away from anything not moto-branded, though.
The 6700 took juice from anything I threw at it with a USB connector: any computer with a USB port, my iPod charger, buncha old blackberry chargers, an airplane adapter thingy, the iGo brick, and a videogame controller charger I once used in a pinch.
9) Subjective build quality: The Q is nice and solid. The new grey and black Qs use that sort of soft-touch but solid-feeling plastic that Honda & Toyota use in the "touchy" parts of car interiors. The battery door may be the thinnest piece of plastic I've ever seen but it somehow ends up solid once it's snapped on. The keys respond nicely and I can't seem to fat-finger them. The D-pad has a hard ridge around it that hurts after a while, though. The side buttons are protected by a little ridge that prevents accidental bumping, and the keys can be software-locked with two clicks.
The 6700 is a clunker. The sliding keyboard varies wildly from one sample to another; I've seen some so stiff it's hard to move them, while mine stayed in place when open and when closed but slid easily when I wanted it to. The 6700 keys are crap, though, sometimes not registering, sometimes registering twice. The side volume slider fell off mine 3 times. The other side buttons are easy to bump, including an insane one that launches IE or the Comm Manager depending on how long you (accidentally) press it. Keylock requires the magic wand. Don't get me started on the Rhino horn or its inability to hold onto a stylus.
10) Goodies: The 6700 came with a holster. Sprint cheaped out on the Q (don't know about other carriers), and put no holster in the box. The 6700 came loaded with a bunch of memory-hogging useless crapware that could only be removed with a registry hack and even then only in older ROMs. The Q has less crapware but appears to be unhackable.
Final thoughts:
Most of the software differences between the 6700 and the Q are due to the choices Microsoft made in stripping down Windows Mobile for Smartphones.
3rd parties have filled in all of the gaps, though. The interface is generally simpler than WM for PocketPC. I can understand the choices MS made to deal with the smaller screen and the lack of stylus, but there's really no reason to dumb-down or remove any of the PDAapplications. As for the hardware differences, if you hate the stylus like me or you hate bricks it's definitely the way to go. A few minutes of one-handed use should convince anyone.
Once you add your own solutions to fill in the gaps in Smartphone software, you're left with a device that is infinitely more usable, portable, and productive than the 6700. At 99 bucks it's a steal. My 6700 is going up on eBay.
The Q wins hands-down.
Or more accurately, one-handed-down.
And yes, I should probably change my user name & profile now.
I had this issue while traveling a few days after buying the Q. I thought my trusty BB charger would handle it. It didn't. I ended up stopping at a VZW store to buy a car charger. Further investigation reveals the answer: the BB chargers put out up to .5 amps, the Q charger puts out .85 amps. So the BB charger doesn't give enough juice to charge the phone. Don't ask me why USB charging works, my BB cable charges the Q just fine. But it does, so that is how I have it at my office, the car charger in the car (where else), and the A/C charger at home.
Oh yeah, just got the 3200 battery from Seidio today. It is a small brick, but once I power cycle it a few times, I won't have to worry about the chargers much.
It's more than just the current from the charger, though. I have two chargers rated on the label at one amp, and they don't charge the thing. The Blackberry charger does put out less than its label says (label says 850mA but it's more like 500) but the other two can put out the full amp. Can't seem to get the full picture on why some work and some don't. Same goes for USB ports on computers: some do, some don't. I'm really more worried about the ones that don't work actually damaging the thing rather than just not charging it.
Putting a fat battery on a skinny phone is against my religion
I just switched from the blackberry 8703e to the moto q and so far I love it. It's pretty much the same with the exception of windows. I was wondering about the third party options you were talking about though. I have Sprint for my carrier and my Q doesn't support the sprint music store or the tv functions. Are there upgrades or do I need to change my plan so I'm not wasting money on stuff I can't use? Also are there any programs/upgrades for creating files like the treowx where you can just use msword?
I don't know about the Sprint Music Store; I never used it. I push all my music from my PC to a memory card and truck it around that way. For streaming video from just about any web source, I use TCPMP. If you put the Orb server on your home PC, you can use TCPMP to view or listen to everything Orb serves up. I thought Sprint advertised some sort of SprintTV for the Q but I could be wrong; you should call them. There's no built-in SprintTV app on the Q; maybe it just uses Windows Media Player.
There are several pocket word type editors for WM5 Smartphone ed. Everybody on this forum mentions Documents to Go Smartphone Edition. There's anotherone called SmartWord.
I couldn't agree more - I am what one would call a "power-user" in terms of minutes and the demands I place on the phone and in m opinion, the Q blows away The 6700 and the i730. Its so much easier to use and it may be slightly, and I mean a slightly less robust operating system but I have not found one issue I couldn't either work around or deal with.
My only major gripes are the word suggestion and spell checker are not included. It s a little annoying but a small price to pay not to have to reboot your phone 10 times a day to make a phone call.
I have had my Q for less than a week, after having a 6700 for almost two years. NO COMPARISON so far...only question I have is why you cant set reminders on tasks other than in outlook itself and then sync it.
Word suggestion is there. In fact, my Q has it on by default, I HATE IT, and I've been too lazy to figure out how to turn it off. Guess we both need to break down and read the manual. I must turn in my propeller beanie in shame. I didn't know the 6700 had a spell checker; I never used it.
My Q has locked up, but not daily like the 6700. In fact, my Q has only locked up twice, both times when the web browser couldn't handle something funky. The 6700 has a reset-hole and you can soft- or hard-reset it that way. Is there any reset for the Q other than removing the battery?
The task reminder problem is one of those Microsoft Smartphone comprormises. I really wish Moto had put the full PDA OS on this device, cause the hardware could certainly handle it even w/o the touchscreen.
I too have converted from the 6700 to the Q. My experiences are exactly the same as PPC67K. There is no way I would go back to the ppc after 10 days with the Q.
The phone rocks. The internet is fast as hell. It is way easier to type on with 1 hand or 2 then the 6700. It's a fraction of the size and weight and can do almost everything the 6700 can.
Also, I had 8 months left on my Sprint contract. I got to the retention department and I got the Q for $99. Can't beat that.
I've had the phone since mondy and love it except for a few minor things. I wish when the screen blanked out that it would lock the device like the Treo's do where you have to press the center button to unlock it. I'm constantly bumping it and turning on some function. I know I can maually lock it but I forget, and I realize I can set the security lock and punch in a 4 digit code but that's kind of a pain. I'll probably do that anyway though.
The other is I have yet to figure out if I can make it play mp3's or wma's for ring tones. I miss my obnoxiuosly loud "Come on Eileen" song for my ring tone!
Thanks for the info, I'm going to try that right now. BTW, the poster recommends "cutting down" the file before setting it as a ringtone: how do you do that?
You just gotta chop it down to a shorter file using a soundfile editor like audacity (which you can get for free from sourceforge.net) before pushing it to your Q.
The task reminder problem is one of those Microsoft Smartphone comprormises. I really wish Moto had put the full PDA OS on this device, cause the hardware could certainly handle it even w/o the touchscreen.
Do you mean that you can't set any kind of a reminder in the calandar using the phone? This could be the one deal breaker for me, as this is the main reason I have my Treo 650.
Nope. Tasks on the phone are a kind of subset of tasks in outlook. You can set up a task on the handset and sync it back to outlook, but you don't get all the bells & whistles of a task in outlook.
I'm not sure if you set the task up in outlook first and then push it to the phone if reminders go with it; I haven't tried it. But I am sure that if you set the task up on your phone there's no reminder option like with calendar appointments.
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